Trump, who spent Tuesday cancelling hisUSA Today subscription—“Boring newspaper with no mojo,” the life-size circus peanut declared on Twitter—did not attend the meeting. County Commission chairman and Miami mayoral candidate Joe Martinez, who presented the idea, explained that Trump’s absence was due in part to the many unknowns, including, “who owns which land, whether any of the property is contaminated, even if Homestead would be willing to go for any such deal.” With that vote of confidence, an architect in the meeting was brought forward to present “fancy” renderings of the proposed studio and hypothesize about a potential airport, hotel, and film school to be included on the lot. Before the commission voted to take 180 days to consider the project and conduct a feasibility study, Martinez produced the following less-than-airtight argument: “What does Hollywood have that we don’t have? What does LA have that we don’t have? They are not as close to Central and South America as we are. They are not as close to the financial capital of the world as we are. They are not as close to Europe as we are.… Why can’t we have an industry that even the environmentalists like — the movie industry?”

In 2001, New York and Palm Beach investors presented similar plans for a movie studio, also near the Homestead Air Reserve Base, but the proposed venture couldn’t gain enough support to move forward.